Does anyone else hate the term 'meltdown'?

Call them overloads, either caused by emotions, information or senses, or a combination of the three. I don't mind what they are called just as long as I have them as little as possible!

Hope you had a good bank holiday too!

Yes, I like 'overload'.  Meltdown always has the negative connotation of 'tantrum', because of the way it's applied to kids.  It's very difficult to explain it to an NT.  I had to speak to my manager yesterday about a few things at work that make me angry.  Things came to a head on Friday evening, when I got close to red-lining.  I'd already started raising my voice and swearing, which is the first danger sign.  Fortunately, I left before it got bad - but I still couldn't drive home straight away because I would have been a danger on the road.  It took me a couple of hours to calm down and stop pacing when I got home.  Even then, it lived with me over the weekend, when I drank too much to try to numb the emotional fallout (another 'meltdown'-type term, I suppose!)  I told her I came close to an 'incident' - but even that doesn't do it justice.  She said she would have been angry, too.  I tried to explain that it's more than just anger: it's essentially the head shutting down because it can't cope with the inputs. 

It needs its own language, really.  It's like with epilepsy.  What used to be called 'fits' and are now 'seizures'.  I said to one person I know with epilepsy that I imagine it's like a short-circuit - which didn't go down too well!  In a way, I think of the 'meltdown' as something like a seizure, because it renders me incapable of doing anything for some time.  'Meltdown', I suppose, is a term that most people think they understand.  But it'll always have that negative connotation.

I usually have panic attacks and just cry, because I can't cope, like I did at work before a real big crisis, when I have panic attacks or shout and cry, then I know I have reached the limit of what I can tolerate.  I hate them and the last ones were at work before I left, I was drinking sips of water in the careers office, attempting to be professional at work.  Yet my former colleagues have asthma attacks, diabetes, epilepsy, so why not deal with colleagues who have autistic meltdowns or whatever you call it.  I know what to do if my colleague has an epileptic fit, heart attack, asthma attack or goes into a diabetic state.  it should be taught on 'First Aid' training programmes, instead of shock horror.  At work I did First Aid training and know how to deal with most things including cardiac arrest but dealing with someone with autism is not taught on First Aid programmes.  Many of my former colleagues continue working despite their medical conditions like 'Asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions, diabetes but if you have autism no one seems to care or cope with the situation, instead they try to get rid of you, without even adjustments being made.

I usually have panic attacks and just cry, because I can't cope, like I did at work before a real big crisis, when I have panic attacks or shout and cry, then I know I have reached the limit of what I can tolerate.  I hate them and the last ones were at work before I left, I was drinking sips of water in the careers office, attempting to be professional at work.  Yet my former colleagues have asthma attacks, diabetes, epilepsy, so why not deal with colleagues who have autistic meltdowns or whatever you call it.  I know what to do if my colleague has an epileptic fit, heart attack, asthma attack or goes into a diabetic state.  it should be taught on 'First Aid' training programmes, instead of shock horror.  At work I did First Aid training and know how to deal with most things including cardiac arrest but dealing with someone with autism is not taught on First Aid programmes.  Many of my former colleagues continue working despite their medical conditions like 'Asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions, diabetes but if you have autism no one seems to care or cope with the situation, instead they try to get rid of you, without even adjustments being made.